This invention is concerned with improvements in or relating to the manufacture of shoes and is especially concerned with attachment of heels to shoes.
The term "shoe" where used herein is to be understood as referring to outer footwear generally whether in a completed state or in the course of manufacture.
In attaching heels to shoes, difficulties have been encountered with heels which taper sharply from the part of the heel which engages the heel seat of a shoe to a slender stem, such heels being referred to as being of "stiletto" type. These difficulties have arisen from there being insufficient material in the rearward portion of the heel to receive heel attaching nails. Hence, where such a heel is nailed onto a shoe a gap may develop between the rearward portion of the heel which has no nails therein and the insole to which the heel is attached.
One solution to the problem of providing attachment of the rearward portion of a heel of the stiletto type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,148,347. In that specification, a machine is described by which a plurality of staples is driven into a heel seat of a shoe and the heel thereof to attach the shoe, the rearmost staple being driven in at an inclination such that its legs are inclined forwardly towards a central region of the heel. This machine provides attachment for the rearward portion of the heel by the rearmost staple which can be received therein by reason of its inclination; however shoe manufacturers customarily prefer to use nails rather than staples for heel attaching as they believe that nails give stronger attachment. For this reason it is desirable to enable nails to be used for attaching stiletto type heels.